Alll right here we go, lots of reading accumulated from hurricane/power outage/computer not working so I couldn’t post. Read a bunch of new books: She Looks Just Like You: A Memoir of Nonbiological Lesbian Motherhood by Amie Klempnauer Miller (236 pages), My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman (232 pages), Wide Awake by David Levithan (221 pages), The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd (309 pages). Finished a couple I’d been working on for a while: The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery (391 pages), Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (324 pages). Re-read three books that I love: Empress of the World by Sara Ryan (213 pages), The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (944 pages), Landing by Emma Donoghue (324 pages), and one to help my sister with summer reading: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (483 pages).
AAAH. I actually have been spending like all my time reading book after book throughout the day(s). I seriously think this Book Club improved my reading speed even more. I am a bit worried because I put some more Gay Books I’ve Been Meaning To Read on hold and they haven’t gotten to my library yet, but I will read those for myself anyway.
Let me see if I can fit in a bit of reviewing in for as many of these as possible. I heard about She Looks Just Like You on AfterEllen a long time ago and saw it in a used bookstore recently. I am not anywhere near Having Kids and for quite a while took the firm stance that I was to have no children, but I have been sort of rethinking that and this book is written by the nonbiological mother, so I wanted to see what her point of view was. I think she explains that lesbians love processing too many times but it was an interesting read even for a non-mom.
Wide Awake…was weird because it’s supposedly set in the (near) future and it was written in 2006 so it was already kind of weird because there had not been a black president yet but the story was about a gay jewish man being elected president and there had already been a woman president. also references to the Tea Party, before our current tea party situation.
The Teahouse Fire I think won an award for best lesbian novel (lambda literary award I think?) but like… there was not enough lesbian-related content for me so mostly I was really bored.
My favorite line from Great Expectations will always be “You’re the pale young gentleman!”
My Invented Life was fun and made references to a couple other good gay books in the story, which is cool. The Vast Fields of Ordinary stars a gay man but ALSO he has a lesbian best friend.
You guys can I just say how glad I am that I do not live back in the era when all books about gays/lesbians supposedly had tragic endings. I mean even the Tales of the City books are a touch too morbid for me, and those are Fun Books. Seriously, where would I be without queer YA lit that is the most fun thing to read ever. Where would I even be. Still identified as straight? Annie On My Mind was a super important coming out book to me. (And here ends my short speech on queer lit which probs makes not so much sense because I am really tired. This book club is my jam.)
@internrachel @julia1